Following the invitation of the Japanese raw materials and engineering company Kobelco, based in Kobe, Prof. Dr. Rudolf Stauber, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Project Group for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS, conducted a two-day workshop. The focus was on applications and design principles for lightweight construction in automotive engineering as well as recycling and substitution of recyclable materials. In particular, Prof. Stauber addressed the processes used in Europe for recovering recyclable materials from end-of-life vehicles as well as construction methods and design principles that will make it possible in the future to reintroduce automotive materials into the recycling cycle in the best possible and energy-efficient way. This is used, for example, in the construction of the body structure of passenger cars and the positioning of batteries for electric mobility.

The RTM process at pilot scale of the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS for the production of structural components based on glass and carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials attracted particular interest.